The cancer research offering new hope to sufferers

The fight against cancer has taken a huge step forward with researchers now claiming that unlocking a person's genetic code can pave the way for individualised, effective treatments.

Director David Thomas of the Kinghorn Cancer Centre at the Garvan Institute told A Current Affair researchers had come to understand that each cancer is driven by a different set of genetic changes.

"One can personalise treatment by understanding and mapping those changes, so to speak, getting the molecular fingerpritn of each person's individual cancer and then applying the right treatment, for the right individual, at the right time," he said.

Young Jade Gallard has been battling leukemia for 18 months. ()

"Every year there are breakthroughs that are making transofrmative differences to patients' lives and that we will try to bring them."

The drugs historically used to treat childhood cancer are poisons which attack all rapidly-dividing cells, even harmless ones.

Professor Michelle Haber, the executive director of the Children's Cancer Institute's Zero Childhood Cancer Program, said it meant almost two-thirds of treated children would incur "a legacy of damage" from the drugs used to cure them of cancer.

The program, which has been launched as a three-year clinical trial, will see scientists and doctors collaborating to use a child's DNA to create new treatment options.